There was something curiously uncanny -- something unearthly and phantasmal almost -- in the spectacle of these figures, the women in white, the men in black, moving through this wan light; and their voices sounded strangely in the dead silence; but ere long a soft saffron tinge began to show itself in the east; one or two scraps of cloud in the violet skies caught a faint touch of the coming dawn; there was a more generous tone on the masses of foliage, on the flower-beds, and on the grass; and now the cheerful chirping of the birds had begun among the leaves. It is a brilliant company -- full of the brightest members of society -- in whose company the popular baritone Lionel Moore has finds himself, in this early morning. They have been planning a musical entertainment . . . yet there is more afoot that than. Those vivacious women! And to be surrounded by the luxuriant surroundings of the wealthy!

Author Biography

William Black (1841 - 1898) was a novelist born in Glasgow, Scotland. During his own lifetime Black's novels were immensely popular, and were compared favorably with those of Anthony Trollope. However, his fame and popularity did not survive long into the twentieth century.